[1]: 3 The body of writings include techniques and policies of moral choices, and the rules of conduct to be followed by scientologists.
[3]Professor Stephen A. Kent quotes Hubbard as pronouncing that "the purpose of ethics is to remove counter intentions from the environment.
And having accomplished that the purpose becomes to remove other intentionedness from the environment" and "(a)ll ethics is for in actual fact is simply that additional tool necessary to make it possible to get [Scientology] technology in.
"[4] Researcher Jon Atack has expressed concern that, in the wrong hands, Scientology ethics can be wielded arbitrarily and absurdly, such as in the 1960s when British Saint Hill Scientologists declared a local pie shop "suppressive" for not carrying apple pie in sufficient quantities to their liking.
Ethics presence is a person's quality of authority or command value, a combination of poise, attitude, effectiveness and enforcement.
The offenses being accused are of non-serious nature and the sentences are at the discretion of the person who convened the court of ethics.
A panel of appointed scientologists in good standing are to "gather and review evidence, determine guilt, and recommend punishment.
A convening authority initiates the comm ev by appointing a chairman, a secretary, and two to five other Scientology members, the majority of which should be senior to the accused.
[7]: 421–422 Persons who have been labelled PTS by the ethics department are not eligible to receive Scientology auditing or training.
[2]: 298 [15][16] Fair game is a retaliatory policy against perceived enemies which L. Ron Hubbard established in the 1950s, formalized in 1965, and described further in 1967.
Since it caused bad public relations, in 1968 Hubbard prohibited use of the term "fair game" — but not its actions.
[17]: 108–109 Hubbard instructed his followers that "fair game" is appropriate treatment for journalists, judges, hostile lawyers, government agencies, psychiatrists and others.
The steps include ceasing committing of any suppressive acts, making a public apology, paying off all debts owed to Scientologists or Scientology organizations, performing an amends project, re-training from the bottom of The Bridge to Total Freedom, and communicating all of these actions to the International Justice Chief [1]: 316–317 The Sea Org observes all the ethics policies of Scientology but, in addition, has their own set of punishments that are not for regular Scientologists who are not on staff.
[6]: 345 A blow drill is used at Gold Base: when someone escapes the compound or is missing, staff are deployed to nearby bus stations and hotels, airline flight records are searched, and the person is hunted down and recovered.
The RPF is a long-term labor camp for Sea Org members who are supposedly troublemakers or failures.
RPFers are segregated from other Sea Org members, undergo security checks, and perform manual labor for most of every day.
Similar to a new Sea Org recruit's experience on the Estates Project Force (a sort of boot camp), the member performs manual labor for most of the day.
The 'prisoners' slept on the floor, were fed cold leftovers or rice and beans, had limited access to washing facilities, and were subjected to daily confession sessions and public humiliation.
Worst of all was the fear that you would hit the side of the ship as you fell, your flesh ripped open by the barnacles.
Overboarding was a very traumatic experience.After their training on the Apollo was completed and the Scientologists returned to their local organizations, they started alternative 'overboarding' practices, including throwing people in bathtubs, hosing them down, or pushing their heads into toilet bowls.
[5]: 190 Though the practice of overboarding from the ship ceased around 1970,[5]: 187 David Miscavige resurrected the practice when he marched his entire staff to the swimming pool at Gold Base and made each person walk the plank (diving board) and jump into the pool fully-clothed.
After that first "overboard ceremony", Miscavige changed the venue to a "slimy pond" on the property and such punishments became a frequent practice.
Allegedly devised as a therapy by Hubbard in the early 1980s and liberally doled out by David Miscavige as punishments, this program required a person to run around a fixed point such as a pole or tree for hours each day until they were exhausted, repeating this every day until they had some sort of realization.
[9]: 138 [21]: 159–162 [6]: 189 [2]: 100 [22] Though a common punishment for Sea Org members only at Gold Base, in the early 1980s some of the franchise owners were ordered onto the running program.
[6]: 189 This in fact became a popular form of punishment: the "Running Program" ... was a nasty, physically exhausting experience that was supposed to be another Hubbard cure for recalcitrant Sea Org members.
Remarkably, this punishment has been remarketed into a program called the Cause Resurgence Rundown, based on Hubbard's claim that circling around a fixed object "aligns your energy flows" and "restores your power as a thetan."
People pay $5,000 to run in circles around a pole in the center of a large room at the Flag Land Base—a testament to how scientologists will accept anything if they are told it comes from Hubbard.
The rankings of lower conditions start at the lowest level which is Confusion, and rises through Treason, Enemy, Doubt, Liability, and back to Non-existence.
"[24] If the staff member's production is sufficiently high (as evidenced by an up statistic), the Scientologist gains an immunity to the Ethics process (ethics protection), even if they have openly committed violations: When people do start reporting a staff member with a high statistic, what you investigate is the person who turned in the report.
The person remained what he was, BUT he was entitled to be forgiven the death penalty ten times in case in the future he did anything wrong.